Comprehending surface and deep structure subjects: children's understanding of implied vs. explicitly stated nouns

Abstract

ABSTRACTPrevious research indicates young children are likely to interpret the surface-structure subject of a sentence as the deep subject regardless of syntax, e.g. John is chosen as subject of both John is easy to please and John is eager to please. However, with one-noun sentences, the task required both recognizing a difference between the sentences and inferring an implied noun. Thus an inability to make an inference might be responsible for the children's consistency in choosing the surface subject. Two experiments compared kindergarteners' interpretations of one- and two-noun sentences. With two-noun sentences (i.e. John is easy for Jim to please), which explicitly stated the surface object, consistency in choosing the surface subject decreased.